Finep Brazil 2026 Non-Refundable Innovation Calls for Companies and Startups

Finep does not offer one universal “startup grant.” Its Mais Inovação Brasil – Rodada 2 consists of separate public calls, each with its own subject, budget, technical requirements, project limits, partners, and submission schedule. The portfolio launched with 13 non-refundable economic-subsidy calls and a combined R$3.3 billion. That total belongs to the portfolio; an applicant must choose a particular call and follow its regulation (edital), rather than treating the headline sum as an available startup award.

As of the date of this review, one call in that portfolio remains open: Transformação Mineral. Finep extended its proposal deadline to November 30, 2026, at 18:00 Brasília time, and reports a current budget of R$215.2 million. The call supports technological research, development, and innovation projects with technological risk in mineral transformation. A partnership with a science, technology and innovation institution (ICT) is mandatory. Finep’s current call page provides the governing documents and application materials. Finep’s September deadline notice describes the extension and thematic areas.

The open call is a possible route for a startup only if the company and its project satisfy those rules. Being early-stage or calling a product innovative does not by itself establish eligibility. The regulation and annexes determine whether the company’s project arrangement, technical maturity, counterpart funding, and planned costs qualify.

Current status and deadline

Finep’s September 4 notice says the Transformação Mineral submission period now closes on November 30, 2026. The call page labels registration open and lists the same cutoff at 18:00 Brasília time. The call has five thematic areas: critical and strategic minerals and materials for the energy transition and decarbonization; urban mining; rare-earth magnets; sustainable mining technologies; and decarbonization of mineral transformation. A project needs a substantive fit with one or more of those areas, not merely a general connection to mining or sustainability.

Other calls in Rodada 2 had different windows. Finep’s August 28 notice extended the deadlines for Transição Energética, Saúde / Empresas, Mobilidade Sustentável, and Base Industrial de Defesa; their revised submission dates have passed. Finep’s official pages also show the Tecnologias Digitais, Semicondutores, and Cadeias Agroindustriais Sustentáveis windows ending in September. Those completed calls are useful context for understanding the portfolio, but applicants should not prepare a new proposal for them unless Finep publishes a new notice or reopens a call. The live opportunity described here is Transformação Mineral.

Finep can publish amendments (rerratificações) that change a deadline, annex, or procedure. Recheck the live call page and documents before investing in a submission and again before sending the final proposal. The published cutoff is a hard deadline in Brasília time; a draft or a saved form is not equivalent to a protocolled submission.

Amount and form of support

The open Transformação Mineral call currently has R$215.2 million in non-refundable economic-subsidy resources, according to its live Finep page. Finep’s September 4 notice describes the revised round budget as R$215 million. The more precise amount shown on the call page is R$215.2 million. Neither figure means that one company can request the total. The regulation and specific annex define project-level minimums and maximums, eligible arrangements, budget categories, and counterpart obligations.

Economic subsidy (subvenção econômica) is public support for company research, development, and innovation that is not repaid like a loan. It still comes with contract terms, approved work and budget, reporting, and accounting duties. Finep’s general description of direct economic subsidy explains the instrument and the financial counterpart expected from recipient companies. Applicants should calculate the counterpart using the current mineral call documents, not a figure from a different Rodada 2 edital.

The portfolio’s R$3.3 billion headline was announced for 13 calls in February. Individual call allocations differ, and some amounts have since been revised. For example, Finep’s mineral-call announcement describes a current allocation of R$215 million, while its live call page specifies R$215.2 million. When preparing a budget, use the live call page, current regulation, annexes, and any later amendment together. Do not use the portfolio total as a proxy for an individual award or assume that a listed budget is still wholly uncommitted.

Who may apply

Finep identifies companies as the target applicants for Transformação Mineral. The call funds project work, not a general business plan or the company’s ordinary expansion. The proposal must address research, development, or innovation with technological risk, connect to the call’s mineral-transformation purpose, and fit a named thematic line. The applicant must also form a partnership with an ICT; the call page makes that partnership mandatory.

The word “startup” does not create an exemption from the company, project, consortium, or financial rules. Finep announced the wider portfolio for Brazilian companies of all sizes, but each call’s regulation supplies the binding eligibility tests. Read the mineral call’s rules for the eligible corporate arrangement, the partner’s role, project maturity, financial counterpart, and restrictions before deciding to apply. If a proposal uses more than one company or an ICT, document each participant’s technical work and budget responsibility in the manner required by the edital. A university contact or informal advisor is not automatically the formal ICT partnership the call requires.

A good first screen is to ask whether the proposed work would still be described as a mineral-transformation research and development project if the startup’s product pitch were removed. Identify the technical uncertainty, the experiment or engineering work that addresses it, and the result the team will measure. Then map that work to the published theme and maturity definitions. If the project is mainly routine deployment, sales, or process purchase, the subsidy’s innovation and technological-risk purpose may not fit.

The thematic fit to check

Finep’s notice groups the call into five themes. A mineral-processing project might fit critical or strategic materials for decarbonization; recovery of useful materials from waste may fit urban mining; a magnet material or process may fit rare-earth magnets; a lower-impact extraction method may fit sustainable mining technology; and a process that reduces emissions in mineral transformation may fit the decarbonization line. These examples describe the subject areas at a high level. The detailed boundaries and any eligible minerals or processes are in the call’s regulation and Annex 1.

Do not rely on a broad label such as “clean technology” to establish fit. Identify the relevant theme by its wording in the official documents, then explain the project’s connection in concrete technical terms. Name the feedstock or material, the process or product being developed, the baseline problem, the intended technical improvement, and the uncertainty that remains. Where the call asks for technical-maturity evidence, use its own definitions and evidence requirements rather than selecting a TRL from a generic pitch deck.

How to apply to Transformação Mineral

Open the official Transformação Mineral call page and download the current regulation and every applicable annex. Start with the thematic definitions and rules for company and ICT participation. Check the page for amendments and FAQs so that an older saved copy does not control your planning.
Confirm the fit before building a full proposal. Write down the call theme, technical uncertainty, project outputs, maturity at the start and end, and why the project is not routine implementation. Ask the prospective ICT partner to confirm its work package, staff, facilities, budget, and formal role. The partnership is mandatory, so it should be part of the actual project design rather than an attachment added at the end.
Check the requested amount and counterpart against the mineral call’s current annexes. Build a budget that matches the eligible cost rules and the work plan. Separate company and ICT responsibilities, and confirm that each cost has a technical purpose and a responsible participant. The portfolio-level R$3.3 billion figure is not the project limit.
Register the company and its authorized representative in Finep’s Plataforma de Apoio e Financiamento. The call page links the client manuals for company registration, the FAP proposal form, and the resources form, as well as platform tutorials. Resolve any company-linking or registration issue early; Finep lists [email protected] for registration guidance on its call pages.
Complete the Formulário de Apresentação de Proposta (FAP) and the resources section using the platform instructions. Describe the project activities, technical milestones, deliverables, costs, partner roles, and evidence that will show whether the work succeeded. Attach the corporate, partner, technical, financial, and declaration documents required by the current regulation and annexes. Do not assume that materials requested by another Rodada 2 call also apply here.
Submit electronically before the official cutoff and confirm that the platform generated a submission protocol. Keep the final version and receipt. If a rule is unclear, use the contact listed on the call page, [email protected], and retain the written guidance. Finep can amend the call; recheck its page before submission.

Preparing a credible project

Finep assesses the proposed project against the call, not the startup’s ambition in isolation. A clear application explains the present technical baseline, the improvement sought, and why the result is uncertain. For a mineral-processing process, that might mean a measurable recovery, purity, yield, emissions, energy, or material-performance target. The target should connect to a work plan that can produce evidence, including experiments, validation conditions, and decision points if an approach fails.

Make the ICT contribution visible. Explain which research or technical activity it performs, what expertise or facilities it provides, who is responsible, and how the work integrates with the company’s development. The mandatory partnership needs to be substantive and documented according to the edital. A letter of general support without defined project responsibilities may not satisfy the call’s requirements.

Build the budget from the work plan. Estimate labor by task and period, identify equipment or services needed for the experiments, and check each item against eligible-cost rules. Include the required counterpart and make sure the company can document it. The amount requested, project duration, and milestones should fit together. Avoid using a broad market forecast to justify costs that have no link to the technical work.

Prepare company and partner records before the deadline. Confirm the legal representative and platform access, the company’s financial information needed for counterpart calculations, and the ICT documentation specified in the annexes. Check that declarations and certificates use the correct legal entities and remain valid for submission. The exact document checklist comes from the current call, not from a generic grant checklist.

Finally, leave time for electronic submission. Review the filled FAP against the final budget and work plan, check attachments and signatures, and verify that the system records the proposal as submitted. Save the protocol and a copy of the final materials. A platform account, an uploaded draft, or an email to the program contact does not replace the electronic submission procedure.

Other Finep routes

Finep’s opportunities hub lists distinct support routes: direct non-refundable calls for companies and ICTs, agent-operated funding for smaller businesses, reimbursable credit, and indirect venture capital. These instruments have different applicants, terms, and application channels. The open mineral call is direct economic subsidy for an eligible company project with an ICT partner. It is not a loan, an automatic startup award, or an application to a venture fund.

Finep’s agent-operated opportunities may be relevant to a smaller company whose project does not fit the mineral call, but the state or regional agent’s own notice controls whether applications are open and what the criteria are. Do not carry the older Tecnova revenue threshold or an old local deadline into a new call without checking the current state agent. Likewise, a fund-manager selection under the venture-capital route is not a direct company grant application.

Frequently asked questions

Is there one Finep startup grant with a standard award? No. Finep publishes separate calls. The open 2026 call discussed here is Transformação Mineral, with a R$215.2 million call budget and its own project limits in the edital.

Can a startup apply to Transformação Mineral? A company may apply if its project and application arrangement meet the current rules. It must fit a published mineral theme, address technological risk, and include the mandatory ICT partnership. Startup status alone does not establish eligibility.

Can a company apply without an ICT? No for this call: the official call description requires a partnership with an ICT. Read the regulation and annex for the partner’s required role and documentation.

Is the deadline still the one in the original call page? Finep’s September update extended the proposal cutoff to November 30, 2026, at 18:00 Brasília time. Confirm the live page before sending because Finep may publish another amendment.

Does the company receive R$215.2 million? No. That is the call’s total budget. The regulation defines the per-project range and other financial conditions, including counterpart requirements.

Where is the proposal submitted? Through Finep’s Plataforma de Apoio e Financiamento, using the FAP and resources forms and the documents specified by the current mineral call.

Next steps

Review the live Transformação Mineral call and its documents. Confirm the project fits one of the five thematic lines, secure an ICT partner with a defined technical role, and check the regulation’s project limits, maturity rules, counterpart, and eligible costs. Register the company and representative in Finep’s platform, prepare the FAP and attachments, and submit with enough time to confirm the electronic protocol before the published cutoff.

The 2026 portfolio is broader than this remaining open call. Finep’s official notice and call page take precedence over older summaries for deadlines, budgets, eligibility, and submission instructions. Recheck them as the deadline approaches.